The ABCs Of Saving Natural Gas
Efficient, modulating gas-fired boilers replace an oil-fired steam plant at an elementary school, earning the school district a utility rebate and saving fuel costs.
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| Energy analysis of a newly installed boiler plant showed fuel-cost savings of $73,000 for an elementary school in Massachusetts. |
The installation of a high-efficiency boiler plant at C.T. Plunkett elementary school, Adams, MA, resulted in the Adams-Cheshire Regional School District's receipt of a $27,000 rebate from the local natural-gas provider. The district recouped more than a third of the cost associated with the boilers.
Hesnor Engineering Co. (HEC), Adams, designed the total replacement of the antiquated oil-fired steam boiler plant, inefficient water heater, and temperature-control systems. The project, valued at more than $480,000, included converting the building's high-temperature water loop from constant-volume pumping to variable volume.
Modifications to the high-temperature water system included the installation of two-way control valves in concert with variable-frequency drives. HEC specified a multiple-boiler, Modu-Fire FD modulating boiler plant with ultra-low NOx emissions from Patterson-Kelley, East Stroudsburg, PA. The boilers' onboard microprocessor controllers automatically adjust fuel and air to the proper ratios required to maintain clean, efficient combustion across the entire firing range of the boiler plant. The equipment has a 5:1 infinitely adjustable burner turndown ratio and a true system turndown capability of 20:1. Maximum combustion efficiency is 88%.
The boiler plant consists of four 2,000-MBH boilers arranged in an injection-type configuration. Three boilers are sized to meet the heating loads; the fourth was included for redundancy and is rotated into use on a weekly basis.
An energy analysis by HEC found that the boiler plant yielded fuel-cost savings alone of $73,000 from October 2008 to March 2009. Taking into account electrical-energy savings and other factors, total savings were extrapolated to be nearly $100,000.
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